PNN – The BBC news network reported in an investigative story that two U.S. Marines were involved in the killing of a family in 2005 during the Iraq War, in what is known as the Haditha massacre.
According to the report of Pakistan News Network citing a report published by BBC on Monday, the Marines attacked the home of an Iraqi family on November 19, 2005, and opened fire, killing everyone except the family’s daughter, Safa.
The report states that Safa was hiding inside with her five siblings, mother, and aunt. Her father was shot dead while opening the front door.
Now, 20 years later, BBC Eye investigations have uncovered evidence showing that a forensic expert considers the two Marines, who were never prosecuted, to have been involved in the killing of Safa’s family.
The evidence, which mainly consists of statements and testimonies given after the killings, raises doubts about the U.S. investigation into what happened that day and poses serious questions about the accountability of the United States armed forces.
The killing of Safa’s family was part of the Haditha massacre, when U.S. Marines killed 24 Iraqi civilians, including four women and six children. They entered three houses and killed almost everyone inside, as well as a driver and four students in a car on their way to university.
The incident sparked the longest U.S. war crimes investigation during the Iraq War, but no one was convicted for these killings.
The Marines claimed they were responding with gunfire after a roadside bomb exploded, killing one of their squad members and wounding two others.
But Safa, who was 13 at the time, told the BBC World Service: “We hadn’t been accused of anything. We didn’t even have any weapons in the house.”
By pretending to be dead among the bodies of her younger siblings, the youngest of whom was three years old, she managed to survive. She says, “I was the only survivor of my entire family.”
Initially, four Marines were charged with the killings, but they gave conflicting accounts of the events. Over time, U.S. military prosecutors dropped charges against three of them and granted them legal immunity. Sergeant Frank Wuterich, the squad leader, was the only one to stand trial in 2012.